Railway journal box



H. N. Jul-:L ET Al. 2,481,120

RAILWAY JOURNAL BOX @pit N949.

Filed Deo. 10, 1946 /4 TT ORA/f Y.

Patented Sept. 6, 1949 RAILWAY JOURNAL BOX Harry N. Juel, John A. Schroeder, and Francis B. Lewis, Denver, Colo.

Application December 10, 1946, Serial No. 715,320

3 Claims.

Y l This invention relates to a railway journal box and has for its principal object the provision of a journal box which can he lifted vertically from the Wheel axle or from which the axle may be vertically lowered so that it will be unnecessary to disassemble the truck when it is desired to replace the wheels and axles.

Other objects and advantages reside in the detail construction of the invention, which is designed for simplicity, economy, and eiiiciency. 1

These will become more apparent from the following description.

In the following detailed description of the invention, reference is had to the accompanying drawing which forms a part hereof. Like numerals refer to like parts in all views of the drawing and throughout the description.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a portion of a conventional railway truck frame with one of the improved journal boxes in place thereon;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a journal pan employed in the invention;

Fig. 3 is a perspective View of a channel member used in assembling the journal box; and

Fig. 4 is a detail cross sectional View taken on the line 4 4, Fig. l.

A conventional railway truck side frame is indicated at Il). In the usual construction the side 'l-v frames carry journal boxes which completely surround the axle journals. Therefore, when it is desired to remove or install an axle, it is necessary to remove the side frame from the truck. This improved journal box construction, however, allows the axles to be dropped from the side frames without disturbing the latter in any way.

'Ihe improved journal box consists of an upper half I I which may be similar in every way to the upper half of a typical journal box. The upper half II is provided with the usual means I2 for holding a conventional bronze bearing I3 in place therein and with hinge lugs I4 to which the usual door is attached.

For the uses of the present invention, however, the upper half I I is formed with relatively heavy, forwardly and rearwardly extending, horizontal flanges I5 along the bottom edges of its front and rear faces.

The upper half II is closed at its bottom by means of a semi-cylindrical pan I6 provided with relatively heavy front and rear flanges Il tting to and beneath the flanges I5. The pan I6 is closed at its outer end by means of an end wall journal as in the usual box. The inner end of the pan I6 contains an inner end wall I9 having a semi-circular axle notch 20 of a size to fit to and around the bottom of the usual axle journal. g

The usual railway journal box has a circular hole in its inner wall through which the'axle journal extends. It is for this reason that it is necessary to remove the truck side frames in order to pull the boxes from the journals. In this improved journal box, the upper half of the usual journal hole is retained in the upper half I `I and the notch 2t forms the lower half thereof.

The usual journal box employs an oil retaining ring of felt in similar material imbedded in a retaining groove about the journal hole. This improved box retains the conventional Voil retaining ring in the usual groove in the upper Vhalf II and in a complementary groove 2| about the notch 20.

langesil carry oil retaining and align` ing tongues 22 which t snugly into receiving grooves 23 in the bottom of the flanges I5. These tongues and grooves serve to accurately position and align the pan I6 with the upper half II The two pairs of flanges I5 and Il are held together by means of rectangular channel slides 24 having upwardly and downwardly turned flanged edges 25. The edges 25 slidably and tightly engage in longitudinally extending receiving channels 26 formed in the tops of the anges I5 and in the bottoms of the :flanges Il.

The slides 24 are locked in place and flanges are still more securely clamped together by means of clamp bolts 2l which extend through the tops and bottoms of the slides through suitable bolt holes 25 and through the flanges I5 and il through registering bolt holes 29.

When assembled, the improved box functions exactly similar to the conventional journal box. To remove a set of wheels and axle, however, it is only necessary to remove the bolts 2l and drive the slides 2li from place. This allows the pan i5 to drop from the axle journal, the conventional oil retaining felt ring pulling from the groove 25 and remaining in place about the journal. The truck is now jacked up to lift the upper half Il and its bearing E3 from the axle journal. To replace an axle the reverse of the above is carried out.

While a speciiic form of the improvement has been described and illustrated herein, it is desired to be understood that the same may -be varied, within the scope of the appended claims,

without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed and desired secured by Letters Patent is:

1. A railway journal box comprising: an inverted U-shaped upper half box having an open bottom and enclosing the upper half of a j0urnal; a bearing member supporting said half box from said journal; means for securing the upper half box to a railway truck; upper flanges extending horizontally along the lower edges of the front and rear faces of said upper half box; a semi-cylindrical pan closing the open bottom of said half box; lower flanges extending along the upper edges of the front and rear faces of said pan; a U-shaped end closing the inner extremity of said pan to the journal; longitudinally extending tongues projecting upward from said lower flanges into longitudinally extending grooves in said upper flanges; longitudinally extending channel members slidably engaging the adjacent upper and lower flanges to maintain them together; and means for locking said channel members in place.

2. A railway journal box comprising: an inverted U-shaped upper half box having an open bottom and enclosing the upper half of a journal; a bearing member supporting said half -box from said journal; means for securing the upper half box to a railway truck; upper flanges extending horizontally along the lower edges of the front and rear faces of said upper half box; a semicylindrical pan closing the open bottom of said half box; lower flanges extending along the upper edges of the front and rear faces of said pan; a U-shaped end closing the inner extremity of said pan to the journal; longitudinally extending tongues projecting upward from said lower flanges into longitudinally extending grooves in said .upper flanges; longitudinally extending channel members; and flanged edges on Ysaid channel members engaging longitudinally ex- 4 tending grooves in said flanges for locking the upper flanges to the lower flanges.

3. A railway journal box comprising: an inverted U-shaped upper half box having an open bottom and enclosing the upper half of a journal; a bearing member supporting said half box from said journal; means for securing the upper half box to a railway truck; upper flanges extending horizontally along the lower edges of the front and rear faces of said upper half box; a semi-cylindrical pan closing the open bottom of said half box; lower flanges extending along the upper edges of the front and rear faces of said pan; a U-shaped end closing the inner extremity of said pan to the journal; longitudinally extending tongues projecting upward from said lower flanges into longitudinally extending grooves in said upper flanges; longitudinally extending channel members; flanged edges on said channel members engaging longitudinally extending grooves in said flanges for locking the upper ilanges to the lower flanges; and clamping bolts extending through the upper and lower sides of said channel members and through the interposed flanges to clamp the entire assembly together.

HARRY N. JUEL. JOHN A. SCHROEDER, FRANCIS B. LEWIS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the ille of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 7,800 Tomlinson July 17, 1877 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country vDate 349,601 Germany fNov. 22, 1918 

